{"id":8338,"date":"2013-04-25T17:06:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T00:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=8338"},"modified":"2013-04-29T16:40:49","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T23:40:49","slug":"spring-garden-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=8338","title":{"rendered":"Spring Garden Primer."},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Soil is everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, soil is everything until the squash bugs arrive.\u00a0 Then killing squash bugs is everything.<\/p>\n

Regardless, your plants need some decent soil in order to get established during the dry spells, flooding, heat waves, and cold snaps of spring.\u00a0 For us that means a trip to the chicken pasture where the chickens have been making compost out of the scraps, bedding straw, manure, and egg shells tossed in there all year long.\u00a0 Don’t worry about leaving holes in the pasture where you scooped out soil.\u00a0 As soon as you leave, the chickens will rush in to excavate for bugs and scratch everything back to normal.\u00a0 Or as soon as you take 2 steps back and put the shovel down.<\/p>\n

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Once the wheelbarrow is filled with dark, moist compost, fill it up with anything else you think you might need in the garden.\u00a0 And I mean fill it.\u00a0 Because if you don’t take everything, then you might have to make 2 trips.\u00a0 And making 2 trips means….well, making 2 trips.<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0 Think microenvironment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s say you only have a wheelbarrow of soil and a big garden to plant.\u00a0 Perhaps you just have one of those cute little compost tumblers instead of an entire pasture of compost.\u00a0 Maybe you want to leave large swaths of your garden brush and soil intact to attract beneficial insects.\u00a0 Consider if you have recently turned 40 and your back and knees are already complaining about the bending and stooping that lies in wait in the garden.\u00a0 Or imagine if you used pigs to till the garden and they left large of areas of dark crumbly soil,<\/p>\n

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randomly interspersed with sections of compacted clay and excavated rocks.<\/p>\n

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Because let’s face it—-rooting is more of an art than a science.<\/p>\n

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In any case, you really only need enough soil to fill each planting hole or to make a seed bed 3-4″ deep.\u00a0 The rest of the area can just be covered with straw to soften the soil for later and keep down the weeds.\u00a0 I know because creating a suitable microenvironment (instead of digging, hoeing, and filling every raised bed with wheelbarrow after back-breaking wheelbarrow of compost) worked perfect for the early lettuce….<\/p>\n

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….and snap peas.<\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0 Don’t forget the little things.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If that 1 load of compost was just enough to fill all the holes and seed beds that you dug, with a few handfuls to spare….<\/p>\n

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….be sure to give thanks.\u00a0 Because that means God loves you.\u00a0 Or that He hates having to make 2 trips instead of 1 just as much as you do.<\/p>\n

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Probably the former.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n

I hope.<\/p>\n

Also, it should be about time to reapply your sunscreen.\u00a0 Or at least adjust your clothing to avoid that annoying farmer’s tan.\u00a0 Farmer style.<\/p>\n

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Because skin cancer kills, flip flop tan lines are bad enough, but this is like wearing your muck boots to the supermarket.\u00a0 Farmer faux pas.<\/p>\n

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It’s the little things that give us away, people.\u00a0 The little things.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Practice guilt-free planting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So you only have a handful of pathetic transplants from the greenhouse….<\/p>\n

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and the rest came from the local home and garden store.\u00a0 Maybe your seed packets came from a discount rack at the drug store instead of an organic seed catalog.\u00a0 In the end, the most important thing is to get them in the ground.\u00a0 Because sometimes the greenhouse sucks<\/span> underperforms and seed purchasing gets so complicated with the concerns of hybridization, GMO, cross-pollination, and seed saving issues that it requires its own political affiliation.<\/p>\n

Besides, the purchased plants come with lovely, plastic, legible tags.\u00a0 Unlike the cut pieces of egg carton that I recycled to label the plants in the greenhouse.\u00a0 Which cannot be read once the marker washes off during watering or fades in the sunlight.<\/p>\n

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Oh, I know what you’re thinking.\u00a0 A bit of loose dirt would make those indentations from the writing in the styrofoam stand right out. Yeah, I read that stuff in Nancy Drew, too.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 That’s a fiction series, people.\u00a0 Fiction.<\/p>\n

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Eh.\u00a0 Does it really matter which type of tomato it is?\u00a0 You say Brandywine, I say Better Boy.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Keep your eye on the prize.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, the newcomers are exciting.\u00a0 Sometimes you can taste the cucumber sandwiches as soon as you see their tendrils reaching for the trellis.\u00a0 But don’t get distracted by the latest transplants.\u00a0 The goal of the garden isn’t just to start projects, but to harvest the fruits of your labor.\u00a0 And that’s always a work in progress.<\/p>\n

So check the broccoli for cabbage worms….<\/p>\n

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turn the soil for the next succession planting of seed potatoes….<\/p>\n

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and weed the onions while you’re down there.<\/p>\n

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Then toss those weeds to those that made all this possible.\u00a0 Thanks, Penny and Pushy!<\/p>\n

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6.\u00a0 Basking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take a moment to enjoy the joy and hope of the spring garden.\u00a0 The bright\u00a0lime green seedlings.\u00a0 The buds ready to burst into bloom.\u00a0 The garden beds before the weeds.\u00a0 The foliage before the squash bugs.\u00a0 The way the garden finally emerges from the brown and gray of winter.\u00a0 Ah, spring.<\/p>\n

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7.\u00a0 Get back to the barnyard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The key to successful farming is dividing your attention equally between the garden and the barn.\u00a0 If you’ve just spent an entire day in the spring garden, better check the barn before going inside for a glass of iced tea.\u00a0 Because you never know what might have…..yep.\u00a0 Just what I thought.\u00a0 The critters will do anything to get their share of attention.\u00a0 Simon, take that bucket off your head.\u00a0 Simon!!!<\/p>\n

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8.\u00a0 Hope your kids make Honor Roll.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because if they do, you get to attend the Straight A Breakfast at school.\u00a0 Where they serve lots of juice.\u00a0 So you can raid the recycling bin for empty plastic juice jugs for the garden.\u00a0 This serves 2 purposes.\u00a0 First, it keeps your kids humble.\u00a0 Nothing like your mom digging through the trash at your middle school celebration to act as an ego check.\u00a0 Second, those jugs can provide a mini-greenhouse for the tender seedlings when a there’s a cold front with nighttime temperatures in the 40’s.\u00a0 Which will happen as soon as you’ve finished Step 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Oh sure, we have a recycling bin at home, too.\u00a0 But we don’t drink enough juice or soda to cover the entire garden.\u00a0 And if we just used the type of empty plastic bottle that we do have,…well, what would the neighbors think?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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9.\u00a0 Wait for the warm weather to come back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Cause it will.\u00a0 Eventually the fun of putting plastic bottles on and off the\u00a0pepper, squash, cucmber,\u00a0and tomato\u00a0plants depending on\u00a0the variable \u00a0temepratures of spring will come to\u00a0an end.\u00a0 And then the fun of\u00a0summer heat sets in and the exciting days of\u00a0choosing between losing your garden to drought or running your well dry.\u00a0 But that’s a whole other post, isn’t it??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Soil is everything. Well, soil is everything until the squash bugs arrive.\u00a0 Then killing squash bugs is everything. Regardless, your plants need some decent soil in order to get established during the dry spells, flooding, heat waves, and cold snaps of spring.\u00a0 For us that means a trip to the chicken pasture where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8338"}],"version-history":[{"count":79,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8480,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions\/8480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}